I made this a few months ago for a SwapBot swap. I knew I wanted to do something that would leave most of the ground bare, since the design had to be four inches on a side and solidly working that much space would've taken too long. But I also wanted the piece to look finished, not like a page from a coloring book waiting for crayons. When I discovered the prospective recipient likes foxes, the red garment linen leftovers in my stash seemed to be the perfect solution.

With a red that. . .RED. . .I figured stylizing the rest of the colors made sense, so the buff and beige of a fox' muzzle and tail turned to bright white, and the dark brown and sable of the socks to flat black. With that palette, a vaguely "cartoon-y" drawing seemed like the obvious choice. I found a good one to use as a jumping-off point on a clip-art site.

I decided that if the white and black sections were too densely covered the bare ground in between might look ignored rather than intentional, so I used blackwork fill patterns to more lightly "paint" the colors in. There's more irregularity than you'd see on evenweave, even in most regimented of the represented patterns, but I felt that only added to the impression of rippling fur. I really embraced that on the chest and muzzle, where I didn't even try to work in rows.

I think it turned out pretty well. I do think if I had it to do over again I'd use a topaz or amber for the eyes, rather than the bright secondary yellow. They contrast very sharply with the red, and draw more attention than I'd really intended. The embroidery is worked with six-strand cotton floss. I believe I used three strands for the outline and two for the fill patterns.